Affinity shopping portal

ABSTRACT

A method of administering a commercial transaction carried out over a communications network ( 20 ) used for shopping includes receiving a shopper ( 50 ) at a first web-site maintained on the communications network ( 20 ). The shopper ( 50 ) has an affinity group ( 40 ) associated therewith. The method further includes forwarding the shopper ( 50 ) to a second web-site maintained on the communications network ( 20 ), and obtaining a generated click-through fee related thereto. A portion of the obtained click-through fee is distributed to the affinity group ( 40 ) associated with the shopper ( 50 ), and it is communicated to the shopper ( 50 ) how much was distributed.

This application is a divisional application of application Ser. No.09/917,143, filed Jul. 27, 2001, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/221,397 filed Jul. 28, 2000.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the art of Internet commerce. It findsparticular application in conjunction with a shopping portal andbusiness model for generating contributions to charitable, non-profit,and other affinity groups or organizations, and will be described withparticular reference thereto. However, it is to be appreciated that thepresent invention is also amenable to other like applications.

Internet commerce, or e-commerce as it is otherwise known, relates tothe buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet. Theconvenience of shopping over the Internet has sparked considerableinterest in e-commerce on behalf of both consumers and merchants. Formerchants desiring to increase sales, it would be advantageous to havehigh levels of Internet traffic from interested consumers. Toward thisend, merchants with a presence on the Internet will often pay fees in aneffort to attract consumers to their web-site. Often, these fees areadvertising fees and/or referral commissions, otherwise known as“click-through fees.”

Typically, advertising fees refer to those fees paid by the merchant toanother web-site owner for providing space on the latter's web-site todisplay the merchants “banner ads.” The banner ads are used to advertisethe merchant's web-site and/or goods. In addition to advertising themerchant's web-site and/or goods, the banner ads will often provide ahyper-link directing the consumer to the merchant's web-site. Anothertype of fee often paid by merchants is the click-through fee. Theclick-through fee can be likened to a commission that is paid to aweb-site owner when a consumer referred to the merchant's web-site makesa purchase. The consumer is considered referred to the merchant'sweb-site when they hyper-link or are otherwise directed there from orthrough a web-site owner's web-page, typically, by an object or link onthe web-site owner's web-page. For example, a “click-through fee”referral system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,141 to Bezos, etal., incorporated herein by reference.

Often, consumers are members or supporters of non-profit organizations,fraternal organizations, charities, unions, school alumni, associations,or other like affinity groups. Many of these affinity groups rely onand/or appreciate donations, gifts, or other financial support to carryout their mission. Moreover, depending on the affinity group, donationsmade thereto may be tax deductible with respect to the donor.Accordingly, it would be advantageous if consumers could financiallysupport their desired affinity group or groups while maintaining arecord thereof so that, e.g., any available tax deductions could beobtained, or so that the contributions could be recognized in somemanner, or so that the donor may simply reflect and take pleasure in thecharitable contributions he has generated, etc. Moreover, it isdesirable that the consumers not be overburdened in this pursuit so thatparticipation by the consumers is maximized and in turn financialsupport for the affinity groups is maximized. Therefore, the foregoinggoal is best achieved when the consumers' participation is maderelatively easy such as when the consumers' participation amounts todoing that which they would already do anyway, e.g., by shopping forneeded or desired goods or services on the Internet.

Accordingly, the present invention contemplates a new and improvedaffinity shopping portal which achieves the above-referenced goals andothers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide, maintain and/oradminister an Internet shopping portal for the mutual benefit ofmerchants, affinity groups and consumers.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method ofadministering a commercial transaction carried out over a communicationsnetwork used for shopping is provided. The method includes receiving ashopper at a first web-site maintained on the communications network.The shopper has an affinity group associated therewith. The methodfurther includes forwarding the shopper to a second web-site maintainedon the communications network, and obtaining a generated click-throughfee related thereto. A portion of the obtained click-through fee isdistributed to the affinity group associated with the shopper, and it iscommunicated to the shopper how much was distributed.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method ofconducting commercial transactions on a communications network to raisefunds for affinity groups includes receiving shoppers at a firstweb-site on the communications network. Each shopper is associated withone of a plurality of affinity groups. The method further includesforwarding each shopper to a selected one of a plurality of secondweb-sites maintained on the communications network, and obtaininggenerated click-through fees related thereto. On behalf of each shopper,a portion of each obtained click-through fee is distributed to therespective affinity group associated with that shopper; and it iscommunicating to each shopper how much was distributed to theirassociated affinity group on their behalf.

In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, ashopping portal is provided that includes: mean for maintaining apresence on a communications network such that shoppers employing thecommunications network can be received; means for identifying receivedshoppers; means for forwarding shoppers to selected shopping sitesmaintained on the communications network; means for monitoring forwardedshoppers' activities at the shopping sites to which they are forwarded;means for obtaining click-through fees based upon the monitoredactivities of shoppers at the shopping sites to which they wereforwarded; means for distributing a portion of each obtainedclick-through fee to an affinity group associated with the shopperresponsible for generating the click-through fee; and, means forreporting to shoppers an amount distributed to their associated affinitygroups by the distributing means.

One advantage of the present invention is on-line merchants receiveInternet traffic from interested consumers.

Another advantage of the present invention is affinity groups receivefinancial support.

Yet another advantage of the present invention is that consumersmaintain records of donations to their chosen affinity groups such thatany available tax deductions can be readily obtained.

Still further advantages and benefits of the present invention willbecome apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading andunderstanding the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING(S)

The invention may take form in various components and arrangements ofcomponents, and in various steps and arrangements of steps. The drawingsare only for purposes of illustrating preferred embodiments and are notto be construed as limiting the invention.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of a network employed inconnection with aspects of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration showing a shopping experienceusing an Internet portal in accordance with aspects of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a screen shot of an exemplary affinity group shopping site orweb-page in accordance with aspects of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration showing a periodic settlement andreporting process carried out in accordance with aspects of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration showing a customized shoppingportal creation protocol in accordance with aspects of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

With reference to FIG. 1, in a preferred embodiment, a coordinator 10,acting as a shopping portal, maintains a presence on the Internet 20 orother like on-line network via a server 12. A merchant 30 also maintainsa presence on the Internet 20 via a server 32. Likewise, an affinitygroup 40 maintains a presence on the Internet 20 via a server 42. Aconsumer 50 gains access to the affinity group 30 and/or the coordinator10 over the Internet 20 using a computer 52 with an appropriate webbrowser or other like software running thereon. The consumer 50 isoptionally an individual, a business, a manufacturer, or any othercustomer or entity which purchases goods and/or services.

Of course, the shopping portal is preferably administered to multiplesimilarly situated merchants 30, affinity groups 40, and consumers 50.However, in the interest of simplicity herein, only one of each areshown in FIG. 1. Moreover, it is to be appreciated that security isoptionally maintained by encrypting, with known encryption techniques,communications relayed or otherwise transmitted over the Internet 20.Alternately or in conjunction with the foregoing, other known securitymeasures may be employed.

In a preferred embodiment, the coordinator 10 also maintains a database14 wherein records or information is stored regarding those merchants30, affinity groups 40, and consumers 50 to which the shopping portal isadministered. For each entity (i.e., merchant, affinity group, orconsumer), the records preferably include one or more of the following:name; address; identifying information, such as a user name or the like;security information, such as a password or the like; accountinformation; etc. Alternately, separate interfaced databases aremaintained for each entity type.

With further reference to FIG. 2, the consumer 50 accesses the affinitygroup 40 over the Internet 20 at the latter's web-site which isadminister via the affinity group's server 42. Alternately, thecoordinator 10 administers the affinity group's web-site for them viathe coordinator's server 12. In any event, the affinity group's homepage 100 or other designated web-page is called up by the consumer 50 orit is otherwise provided thereto by the affinity group 40. Preferably,the home page 100 includes a hyper-link 102 thereon that directs theconsumer 50 to the coordinator 10. When the consumer 50 visiting theaffinity group's web-site wishes to shop, he or she “clicks-on” orotherwise activates the hyper-link 102. Preferably, the hyper-link 102references its purpose by appearing on the home page 100 as, e.g., thephase “SHOPPING LINKS” or other such suggestive phases and/or indicia.

As stated, upon activation of the hyper-link 102, the consumer 50 isdirected to the coordinator 10. Optionally, the consumer 50 may chooseto access the coordinator 10 directly. Initially, the coordinator 10provides a “login” page 200 to the consumer 50. Via the login page 200,if the consumer 50 has already signed up or registered with thecoordinator 10, he may log in and/or identify himself by entering a username and password or other identifying information. The enteredidentifying information is preferably verified against the recordsmaintained in the database 14. Otherwise, if the consumer 50 has notpreviously signed up or registered with the coordinator, he may do sovia the login page 200 such that a new record is created for him in thedatabase 14. The consumer 50 signs up with the coordinator 10 bysupplying the coordinator 10 with the information used to create the newrecord. Preferably, the record includes one or more of the following:the consumer's name, the consumer's identifying information (e.g., username, password, etc.), the consumer's electronic mail (e-mail) address,the consumer's home and/or work addresses, the consumer's home and/orwork phone numbers, the consumer's social security number, and otherlike personal information.

After logging in, the affinity group's shopping site or web-page 300 iscalled up by the consumer 50 or it is otherwise provided thereto by thecoordinator 10 which preferably maintains and/or administers the same onthe affinity group's behalf. See FIG. 3 for an exemplary screen shot ofan affinity group shopping site or web-page 300. In a preferredembodiment, the coordinator 10 similarly maintains and/or administers aplurality of shopping sites or web pages for a corresponding pluralityof affinity groups 40. With respect to a consumer 50 which arrived byway of a particular affinity group's home page 100, the consumer 50 isautomatically direct to that same affinity group's shopping site orweb-page 300. Alternately, the consumer 50 may select the shopping siteor web-page 300 he wishes to visit or access. In particular, theconsumer selection route is used when the consumer 50 did not arrive viaa particular affinity group's home page 100, e.g., where the coordinator10 was accessed directly. The consumer 50 may also directly access theaffinity group's shopping site or web-page 300 which may optionallyinclude the log in function and/or the sign up or registration function.In the case where the affinity group's shopping site or web-page 300includes the log in function and/or the sign up or registrationfunction, the consumer 50 activating hyper-link 102 may optionally bedirectly routed thereto without first stopping at the login page 200.

In any event, once logged in and identified, the consumer's activitiesare monitored so that ultimately click-through fees generated by theconsumer's activities can be tracked and associated with the consumer 50and the affinity group 40 through which the consumer 50 is shopping.

Preferably, each shopping site or web-page 300 is individually styledand/or designed for its associated affinity group, and each contains oneor more hyper-links which direct the consumer 50 activating a selectedhyper-link to a corresponding contracting merchant 30. The hyper-linkson the affinity group's shopping site or web-page 300 are preferablyorganized so that they may be easily located by a consumer 50 accessingthe same. For example, they may be organized alphabetically under themerchants' names, or by categories of goods and/or services offer by themerchants, or some combination thereof, etc. Optionally, the style ormanner of organization may be selected by the consumer 50 from aplurality of defined organizational schemes. Additionally, a searchengine is optionally provided to locate particular contracting merchants30 and/or text of interest.

In a preferred embodiment, the contracting merchants 30 are registeredwith the coordinator 10 and have negotiated with the coordinator 10 orindividual affinity groups 40 to have hyper-links to their onlineweb-sites included in selected ones or in all the affinity groupshopping sites or web-pages 300 maintained and/or administered by thecoordinator 10. In return, the contracting merchants 30 have agreed topay click-through fees for directing consumers 50 to them. Theclick-through fees are optionally calculated as a flat fee for eachreferral, a flat fee for each referral which makes a purchase, apercentage of each referral's purchases, or an otherwise determinedamount. Records regarding registered merchants 30 are preferablymaintained in the coordinator's database 14. The merchant recordspreferably include one or more of the following pieces of information:identification information (e.g., type of merchant, type of goods and/orservices sold, a designated user name or ID, physical address, e-mailaddress, web address or Universal Resource Locator (URL) address,merchant's name, corporate name and/or tax ID, etc.); securityinformation, such a secret password; click-through fee information, suchas the negotiated or agreed upon click-through fee rate or amount;financial account information, such as financial account numbers fromwhich click-through fees are to be paid; etc.

The affinity groups 40 are also registered with the coordinator 10 andhave negotiated with the coordinator 10 to have their online shoppingsites or web-pages 300 maintained and/or administered by the coordinator10. In return, the affinity groups 40 have agreed to share derived orgenerated click-through fees with the coordinator 10. Records regardingregistered affinity groups 40 are preferably maintained in thecoordinator's database 14. The affinity group records preferably includeone or more of the following pieces of information: identificationinformation (e.g., type of affinity group, a designated user name or ID,physical address, e-mail address, web address or URL address, affinitygroup name, corporate name and/or tax ID, etc.); security information,such as a secret password; share information, such as the negotiate oragreed upon share of the click-through fee to be had by the affinitygroup 40 and the coordinator 10; financial account information, such asfinancial account numbers to which the affinity group's share ofclick-through fees are to be posted; etc.

When a consumer 50 activates one of the hyper-links on an affinitygroup's shopping site or web-page 300, they are directed to thecorresponding merchant 30 where they may call up or are otherwiseprovided access to the merchant's shopping site or web-page 400.Thereafter, in the usual manner, the consumer 50 is free to shop onlinefrom the merchant's shopping site or web-page 400. The consumer'sshopping activities are monitored and records thereof are maintained inthe coordinator's database 14. The shopping activity records arepreferably correlated with the records of identified registeredconsumers 50 already in the database. The shopping activity recordspreferably include one or more of the following pieces of information:identification information regarding the consumer 50; identificationinformation regarding the merchant 30 where the shopping took place;identification information regarding the affinity group 40 or theaffinity group's shopping site or web-page 300 through which theconsumer 50 arrived at the merchant's shopping site or web-page 400;sales information regarding the purchases made (e.g., item(s) purchased,quantity, purchase price, etc.); the time and/or date of the purchasesmade; etc.

With further reference to FIG. 4, the coordinator 10 periodicallycollects or otherwise receives payment for the click-through fees fromthe contracting merchants 30 in accordance with the agreed upon terms.This may be done in a variety of manners as are known in the art, e.g.,via electronic funds transfer, traditional settlement techniques, etc.Payments for the click-through fees may be verified against and/orcorrelated with shopping records maintained in the coordinator'sdatabase 14.

The coordinator 10 preferably retains a percentage, a flat fee or rate,or an otherwise determined share of the click-through fees as payment tocover the overhead and/or services rendered by the coordinator 10. Whatremains of the click-through fees is distributed to the affinity groups40 in accordance with terms agreed upon between the coordinator 10 andthe affinity groups 40. Preferably, each affinity group 40 receives anagreed upon amount (flat fee, percentage, or otherwise) for eachclick-through fee resulting from a consumer referral associated withtheir particular affinity group shopping site or web-page 300. Havingbeen correlated with their respective records in the database 14, eachamount distributed to the affinity groups 40 can be, and are preferably,designated as being from the specific consumer 50 responsible forgenerating the affinity group's share of each click-through fee.Accordingly, the affinity groups 40 can recognize each supporter'scontribution as they see fit, e.g., via a letter of thanks to thesupporter, an annual award for achieving a threshold level of support,etc.

A consumer 50 that is not registered with the coordinator 10 may stillbe referred to a contracting merchant 30 through one of the affinitygroup shopping sites or web-pages 300. In this case, click-through feesmay still be generated. Such click-through fees that result in adistribution to one of the affinity groups 40 is optionally designatedas being from “anonymous.”

In a preferred embodiment, periodically (preferably monthly, quarterly,or yearly), the coordinator 10 complies information from the database 14into reports which are forwarded to each registered consumer 50. Thereports are optionally forwarded to their respective consumers 50 viae-mail, regular U.S. mail, or otherwise. The reports give a detailedsummary of each consumer's shopping activities for the given period andcommunicate the amount of financial support or donations that weregenerated by each consumer 50 for respective affinity groups 40 due totheir shopping activities. That is to say, each report communicates toits respective consumer 50 the amount or share of click-through feesreceived by each of the affinity groups 40 that are attributable to thatconsumer 50 for the given period.

In this manner then, the coordinator 10 acts as a shopping portal forthe mutual benefit of merchants 30, affinity groups 40, and consumers50. That is to say, merchants 30 attract Internet traffic to theironline shopping sites or web-pages 400, while affinity groups 40 receivefinancial support through the sharing of the click-through fees.Consumers 50 also receive the benefits of supporting their selectedaffinity groups 40 with their support being tracked and reported back tothem and the affinity groups 40 so that appropriate recognition may bereceived, consumers 50 may reflect on and/or take pride in theirsupport, tax benefits may be realized if available, or other desiredactions may be taken based thereon. Moreover, transaction volume ismaximized insomuch as the consumer 50 is encouraged to participate. Thatis to say, the consumer 50 is only doing that which he or she would bealready doing otherwise, i.e., shopping online.

In addition, by having the coordinator 10 maintain and/or administer theaffinity groups' shopping sites or web-pages 300, the affinity groupsare free to devote more of their efforts, network and/or computerresources, online resources, web-page space, etc. toward their coreobjectives, be it charity work or otherwise. The coordinator 10 is alsoable to pool the bargaining power of multiple affinity groups 40 (withan arguably larger consumer base than individually) when negotiatingterms with merchants 30. In turn, the merchants 30 benefit from thelarger consumer base shopping through the portal.

Another aspect of the present invention is that it allows the affinitygroup 40 to design and build their own shopping portal with little to notechnical expertise. This is achieved by a representative of theaffinity group 40 connecting to the coordinator's web site and utilizingan application that allows for the instant creation of a customizedshopping portal. Through a series of questions and answers or otherwise,the desired data is collected and used to dynamically create a programthat provides for the customized shopping portal. In a preferredembodiment, the application optionally allows the affinity group 40 tobuild additional services into their web site, such as, a calender, newsitems, etc. This helps to further build community strength and supportof the affinity group 40.

With reference to FIG. 5, a customized shopping portal creation protocol500 is shown. An affinity group 40 or a representative 510 thereof (asshown) contacts the coordinator 10 over the Internet 20 and accesses aportal creation application 512 supported on the coordinator's server12. Preferably, the representative 510 logs in to application 512 byentering a username and password or other like authentication data. Viaa series of prompts and/or web pages provided to the representative 510,the application 512 collects data used to create a customized shoppingportal for the affinity group 40. In a preferred embodiment as shown, afirst series of prompts or web page 520 is used to collect generalinformation about the affinity group, e.g., name, contact information,etc. A second series of prompts or web page 530 is used to collect achosen theme template that will dictate the physical layout of theportal. Optionally, the representative 510 will chose from a number ofdefined templates or will be able to selectively arrange the orderand/or size of a number of different regions which will contain theparticular content of the representative's choosing. The theme may alsobe used to define the fonts and other like characteristics of thecreated portal. A third series or prompts or web page 540 is used tocollect a chosen color scheme that will dictate the colors used in thelayout of the portal. Optionally, the representative 510 will choosefrom a number of defined color pallets or will be able to selectivelychoose specific colors for designated regions. A final series of promptsof web page 550 allows the representative 510 to optionally upload anylogos, trademarks, etc. that he desires to have included in thecustomized shopping portal.

Once all the information has been collected, the application 512generates the customized portal 560. The portal 560 is essential a website, and it may optionally reside on the affinity group's own server 42or the coordinator's server 12. Similarly, the web site 300 may besupported on either server. In any event, the portal 560 is assigned aunique identification number or other like data element so that thecoordinator 10 may track purchases made by consumers 50 linking tomerchants 30 through the portal 560. In this manner, a designatedportion of the collected click-through fee may be associated with theaffinity group 40 on whose behalf the portal 560 was created andmaintained.

The invention has been described with reference to the preferredembodiments. Obviously, modifications and alterations will occur toothers upon reading and understanding the preceding detaileddescription. It is intended that the invention be construed as includingall such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within thescope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

1. A method for creating a customized shopping portal for an affinitygroup, said customized shopping portal being accessible by shoppers overa communication network and referring shoppers to shopping sites on thecommunications network such that upon the shoppers making purchases atthe shopping sites a fee is generated at least a portion of which isreturned to the affinity group, said method comprising: (a) maintaininga server on the communication network; (b) supporting a portal creationapplication on the server, said application being accessible over thecommunications network; (c) collecting data via the application from arepresentative of the affinity group accessing the application over thecommunications network; and (d) using the collected data to dynamicallycreate a program that provides the customized shopping portal.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein step (c) comprises: providing a series ofprompts or web pages to the representative to collected the data fromthe representative.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the collected dataincludes information about the affinity group for which the customizedshopping portal is being created.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein thecollected data includes a selection of a template that dictates thephysical layout of the customized shopping portal.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, wherein the collected data includes a selection of one or morecolors to be used at particular locations in the layout of thecustomized shopping portal.